This volume is dedicated to the International PhD Program “Searching for Identity: Global Challenges, Local Traditions,” organized at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw, in 2013–2018. The volume aims at showing identity as a processual concept, using the example of the researcher as a living personality. It thus corresponds with the general trend in the humanities and social sciences to pay attention to the researcher and the ways his or her personal background and experience influence the generation of knowledge. By introducing this topic, we would like to show completing a PhD, or any other research, as a dynamic process with a personal history of success and failure, as well as to demonstrate the impact of the “Searching for Identity” project. ***** Poszukiwanie tożsamości. Osobiste doświadczenia i refleksje metodologiczne Niniejszy tom poświęcony jest Międzynarodowemu Programowi Doktoranckiemu „W poszukiwaniu tożsamości: globalne wyzwania, lokalne tradycje”, organizowanego na Wydziale „Artes Liberales” Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego w latach 2013–2018. Tom ma na celu ukazanie tożsamości jako koncepcji procesualnej na przykładzie badacza jako żywej osobowości. Koresponduje to zatem z ogólnym trendem w naukach humanistycznych i społecznych, by zwracać uwagę na badacza oraz na sposób, w jaki jego osobiste pochodzenie i doświadczenie wpływają na generowanie wiedzy. Wprowadzając ten temat, chcielibyśmy pokazać ukończenie doktoratu lub jakichkolwiek innych badań jako dynamiczny proces z osobistą historią sukcesów i porażek, a także zademonstrować wpływ projektu „Poszukiwanie tożsamości”.

Olha Tkachenko, Ayur Zhanaev Foreword 9 Robert Sucharski A Few Words in Way of Introduction 15 Jan Kieniewicz Experiences in Searching for the Identity of a Nation 23 I. INSIDER AND OUTSIDER EXPERIENCES Daria Burnasheva Uncovering Arcticness: Experiences of Arctic Identity at Home and Abroad 59 Galina Dondukova Insider, Outsider, or In-Between? The Experience of Studying the Buryat Ethnic Identity in Poland 83 Ayur Zhanaev The Falling Rain Will Stop, The Guest Who Arrived Will Leave: Once Again on “Insider” and “Outsider” Positions in the Buryat Field 99 II. IDENTITY IN THE TEXT AND IN DISCOURSE Olha Tkachenko Perceived Identity: Real Objectivity or Deconstruction of Discourse? 119 Irina Koluzaeva Life Strategies in a Wartime Borderland: Problems of Identity of People “In Between” on the Eastern Border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Livonian War 137 Bato Dondukov Virtual Reality as Fieldwork: A Study of Buddhist Communities of Russia on the Internet 155 III. FROM PERSONAL IDENTITY TO IDENTITY OF A SCHOLAR Kyunney Takasaeva (Künnej Takaahaj) Refl ections on Name and Identity: “What Do You See in My Name?” 179 Wojciech Cendrowski A Blue Collar as an Ethnographer: A Few Reflections about Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Context of the Polish University 205 Marzena Maciulewicz In Search of Scientific Identity: Reflections on Intercultural Partnership, Fieldwork, and Researcher’s Engagement 229 Kamil Maria Wielecki International and Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programs in the Polish Academic Culture – Obstacles and Opportunities: Observations of a Graduate and Coordinator 267 IV. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AS A COMPONENT OF ACADEMIC CHANGE Valeria Korablyova Imagining a Modern Poland: Lessons for Ukraine 287 Oleksiy Polunin Time Flow in the Human Mind 307 Inna Sukhenko Literary Chernobyl as a Factor of Ecological Identity Formation: The Case of Ukraine 341 Natalia Andriichuk Terminology in Inclusive Education: Its Evaluation in Ukraine 361 About the Authors 375